From The Ashes I Rise
by Last Guardian Standing
Summary: Almost no-one believes Harry when he says he didn't enter his name into the Goblet of Fire. However for thos who do events will be triggered that will change their lives forever. Main pairings; Harry/Daphne/TBC, Neville/Tracey and Blaise/TBC. Good Dumbledore, Petty and Childish Ron and Hermione. Powerful/Grey Harry.
1. Chapter 1

**A.N/ Here is my new story idea that I will be writing at the same time as 'May Our Hearts'. Hopefully I can write both in a relay system but if I can't then 'May Our Hearts' will be concentrated on more as it was my first story and has far more readers than this will initially.**

Chapter 1: Burning Friendships

Just once Harry Potter would have liked a quiet year at Hogwarts, but it seemed like he was cursed by fate to have something try to kill or maim him each and every year. It had all started the previous evening when his name had appeared out of the Goblet of Fire that chose the champions for the Triwizard tournament from three magical schools. However it should have not been possible for Harry to be entered in this tournament for a variety of reasons, the first being was that the champion for Hogwarts was a Hufflepuff by the name of Cedric Diggory who was everything that Harry felt that he wasn't. Cedric was a tall, handsome and popular guy not just because of his looks, but because of his prowess on the Quidditch pitch and his high grades despite the fact that he wasn't a bookworm.

The second reason which made Harry nervous was the fact that the Tournament was only supposed to be open for entrants that were seventeen years old or more as the tasks that they were most likely to be facing would be using high levels of complex magic that would be far beyond what any student would hope to achieve unless they were almost finished with their schooling. Due to the fact that Harry was only in his fourth year and he had been raised by Muggles until he reached the age of eleven he simply didn't have the magical knowledge to compete even if he had been pushing himself harder over the summer and for the first few months of the year so far.

The final reason was the most important and what everything should have been based off when it came to other people's attitudes towards him was that Harry knew that he had not entered himself in the Tournament. Sure he had had daydreams and fantasised about if he was old enough to enter like most of the other students in his year had done as well, but Harry would never have entered even if it had been offered as he just wanted one quiet year where he could further himself in his studies without something trying to hurt him.

However when it came to the final reason no-one seemed to believe that he hadn't entered his name into the Goblet of Fire somehow using magic or trickery that was unknown to the rest of Gryffindor house. This in itself was ludicrous but Harry was fast learning that when people were angry or jealous they tended to not make very good or logical decisions and they also tended to follow whatever voice or opinion was the loudest rather than making up their own minds. This had been made abundantly clear to Harry when he had re-entered Gryffindor tower last night, and thinking back pained Harry to his very core but he couldn't help but relive the memories of the potential disintegration of most of his friendships.

Harry had been trying to put off returning to Gryffindor tower as long as he could as he was fairly certain that it wasn't going to be a party inside waiting for him to show up as a Gryffindor was technically school champion as well as Cedric Diggory. Harry knew that his friendships had been a little shaky since returning to school but he had hoped that it would be something that would pass as his friends got used to his new work ethic.

After his lack of magical knowledge had allowed Peter Pettigrew to escape this meant that his Godfather, Sirius Black was forced to go back on the run again when they had been so close to clearing his name. Harry had vowed after letting Pettigrew escape that he would study harder so such a thing would never happen again if he could help it. He had took to this new work ethic with vigour over the summer as he had been reading ahead as much as he could with his school books to try and learn as much magical theory and new spells that he could. Harry was also very happy that wherever Sirius was he seemed to have a large supply of books with him as he had sent a few to Harry after Harry had written to him asking about where he might be able to get more advanced books from without having to visit Diagon alley. These books had proved to be extremely helpful to Harry over the entirety of the summer as they had been full of theory and spells that he hadn't even attempted and he was fairly certain was at a level that Hermione might not have even attempted yet.

All of this had meant that when Harry had got back to Hogwarts he had been putting in a lot more effort to his schoolwork and was no longer slacking off during lessons when he thought he would be able to get away with it like Ron did. He had been pushing himself in every lesson to not only finish the work that they had been assigned, but also any spells or theory that was related to what they were currently studying so that if asked he could prove that he wasn't going off task, but was instead furthering his own learning. It had also meant that Harry had arranged with Professor McGonagall to drop Divination and instead take up Ancient Runes with the reasoning that he was finished with coasting through his time at Hogwarts and he felt that he would get more out of studying Runes than Divination. Harry could have sworn that after hearing his reasons for switching classes he could see a ghost of a smile on the stern Professor's face as she agreed to make the arrangements.

However despite the fact that most of Harry's Professors apart from Snape, who would rather dance naked with Alastor Moody, before he would admit like his colleagues had that they were very pleased with Harry's newfound enthusiasm towards learning and the progress he was making. No despite this he was getting increasingly detached from Ron and Hermione as he continued to make great strides in his work whilst Ron was still just barely trying and Hermione was desperately trying to catch up or beat him. This had caused friction between the three friends as Ron was annoyed at Harry for putting his work ahead of everything else which was a full one eighty to how Harry had viewed his work last year and how Harry was getting more points for Gryffindor in one week than Ron usually managed in a year due to his progress. Hermione's reaction to Harry's new work ethic had stung somewhat as he had expected that she would be happy to have someone that took pride in their work as much as she did and to have someone who would challenge her to do better thus making her own work better in turn. However this hadn't happened and instead of Hermione being happy for him she had become rather bitter and petty about who had earned the most points for Gryffindor during the week and if Harry performed a new piece of magic before her then she became rather hostile and would become focussed on also performing the spell and if she couldn't then she would become rather unpleasant to be around.

With all of this running around Harry's mind as he made his way up to Gryffindor tower made him not want to enter the tower as he was scared of what they might say despite the fact that he hadn't actually done anything to make the events that had transpired happen. As he pushed open the portrait to the tower he was met with a room that suddenly lapsed into silence at seeing hm and he braced himself for what was about to happen.

"So you finally decided to grace us with your presence Potter?" Came a rather cold tone from somewhere in the middle of the room and if Harry hadn't known it so well he might have not recognised it but he knew that it was Ron speaking.

Harry looked around the room for anyone that might be willing to listen to his side of the story, but most faces were looking at him with either anger, jealousy or something close to hate. The only anomalies in this sea of faces was the Weasley twins who looked rather apologetic, but didn't seem to want to speak out for some reason and Harry couldn't see Neville anywhere so maybe he might still have one friend in what was fast becoming the tower of the Jackals rather the tower of the Lions.

"Do you have nothing to say for yourself Potter or are you waiting for all of us to fall to our knees in awe and worship the scar on your head?" This came from Hermione in a rather snotty tone that she had only previously used when lecturing people about House Elf rights in the common room.

"Are you going to at least let me try and explain guys?" Harry replied with a hint of pleading in his tone as he watched friendships start to crack.

"What is there to explain? Harry Potter couldn't stand anyone else getting a little bit of fame at Hogwarts so he had to cheat his way into the Triwizard tournament to try and regain the spotlight!" It hurt Harry more than he thought it would that this had been said by Angelina Johnson who would most likely be taking over the Gryffindor Quidditch team next year and Harry had considered almost a big sister. That even after playing on the same team as her for three years she could think such things of him and she wouldn't even hear what he had to say.

"Guys please you know me. You know that I hate my fame and I want to be as far out of the spotlight as possible." Harry tried again to make his friends and housemates see reason in the face of mass opinion.

"If that's true then why are you trying to be teacher's pet in all of your classes? If you just want to be normal then why are you trying to make the rest of us look bad?" Hermione retorted in the same snotty tone that she had used before.

Harry looked at her unable to form any words against what was being said to him. In part of his mind it was saying how pathetic it was if that was what they thought he was doing in class rather than trying to better himself for his own peace of mind rather than for praise and the admiration of others. Another part was angry that people would turn on him so readily when he had done nothing to warrant such behaviour from them in the last few years. Finally the majority of his thoughts were of sadness at what was happening and that he had no control over what was happening.

In the end Harry took the most logical step and he turned round and walked back out of the portrait hole away from the Jackals that had invaded the Lion's den. Harry was at this point desperately trying to keep his emotions in check, but it was a losing battle as his tears threatened to spill out. After wandering through corridor after corridor Harry finally found himself in a section of the castle that he had hardly ever visited with an unfamiliar door on his right opposite one of the more absurd paintings in the castle. The painting was of a rather confused looking wizard who was trying to teach some trolls what looked like the ballet if the tutus he had them in were any clue towards his goal. Realising that it was close to curfew Harry entered the room in front of him so that he wouldn't have to risk returning to Gryffindor tower where there would be a less than warm welcome or risk running into Snape or Filch patrolling the corridors.

Harry was rather surprised when he opened the door in front of him and found a bedroom with a large four poster bed inside that resembled his own bed in Gryffindor tower. However what was different was that this room was painted in neutral colours in contrast to the red and gold that adorned all of the bed hangings in his normal room. For the time being Harry found the lack of the bold colours comforting as he didn't need yet another reminder of his house stabbing him in the back. As Harry took off his outer robes and pulled back the covers of this bed that had appeared he was still struggling to understand as to why all of his friends had turned on him at the drop of a hat or in this case at the drop of a parchment fragment. His mind returned to its original thoughts of how childish and pathetic Hermione was being at the whole ordeal as he knew she was angry at him being in the Triwizard tournament in itself as she didn't really care all that much about it. No what Harry reckoned she cared about was that a magical artefact had determined that he was worthy to be in such a tournament and that he was just trying to prove that he was better than her by showing off. Harry hoped that he was wrong about this but due to Hermione's behaviour that evening he was fairly sure he was right even though he had hoped she would be more mature now that she was fifteen but alas no, she apparently had the same level of maturity as Ron did at the moment.

As Harry started to drift off to sleep his final thoughts were of the concern on professor Dumbledore's face after he had decided that Harry had indeed not entered his name into the Goblet of Fire. However none of the other tournament officials agreed with him as they all thought that Harry had cheated somehow and that possibly Dumbledore had assisted him. This could not be further from the truth as the old Headmaster had taken Harry aside before dismissing him to let him know that he would try and get to the bottom of the situation, but he could not shown to be interacting with Harry more than the average student might be interacting directly with the Headmaster otherwise people might get suspicious and accuse him of aiding Harry even when that was against the rules. Unfortunately Harry was quite adept at reading between the lines and knew that Professor Dumbledore was saying that he would not be able to intervene if Harry received a cold front in any way from the rest of the school as this might well be seen as favouritism and cats yet more doubt on Harry's proclamation that he hadn't entered his name into the Goblet of Fire.

As Harry awoke the next morning he was at first confused as to where he was and why he was feeling so upset before it all came flooding back. He sighed as he recalled his name coming out of the Goblet of Fire, the accusations that he was a liar and a cheat, the rather frosty welcome he had received at Gryffindor tower and finally how his so called 'friends' had reacted to him becoming a Triwizard champion. Harry was just thinking that he needed to get back to Gryffindor tower to take a shower when suddenly a shower appeared in one corner of the room which made Harry's eyes widen in shock. He realised that this room was magical in itself and that was why he had only seen it for the first time last night was due to its nature. Pushing these thoughts to one side for the time being to revisit later Harry showered and got redressed before bracing himself and exiting the room that had been his solitary sanctuary for the last twelve hours.

Walking down to the Great Hall for breakfast reminded Harry a lot of when he had first arrived at Hogwarts where people would point, stare or whisper things to each other as he passed which he had found a little overwhelming to begin with but had since learnt to deal with. However he knew that people weren't acting like they were due to being so close to the Boy-Who-Lived after hearing stories about him for so many years. No they were probably all calling him the Boy-Who-Cheated or something similar and not all of them were whispering, in fact some of the surrounding students weren't even bothering with the premise of private conversations as they loudly exclaimed that they had knew all along that he was nothing but an arrogant attention seeker and cheater.

Harry did his best to ignore them but they would not stop and he finally decided to break off from the main corridors and take a less well known shortcut that would take him almost to the top of the final staircase down to the Great Hall. This helped a lot as he was finally away from the whispers but he knew that it would all start over again as soon as he entered the Great Hall but magnified hugely due to the large number of students that would be there on a Sunday. For once Harry would have liked to be completely and utterly wrong but his predictions were spot on as he walked through the double doors the noise in the hall dropped briefly as the amassed students took note that he was in the Hall before they started up their conversations again at a louder volume, a large majority that seemed to be speculating on how Harry had cheated his way into the tournament.

Sitting down at the end of the Gryffindor table Harry was unsurprised when several people slid down the benches to be further away from him and new arrivals were looking for spots that were as far away from him as they could possibly be. Not wanting to linger in such a hostile environment Harry ate quickly before he made his way out of the Great Hall and through the doors leading outside so that he could have some peace and quiet away from the masses.

Finding a secluded place with several tall rocks, Harry clambered up to the top before he lay down flat on the top of the rock and just stared up into the distance as he contemplated what the hell he was going to do in order to survive the tournament. However his thoughts were eventually broken by a voice that was clear but laced with apprehension.

"Harry, do you want to talk about what's wrong?"

Harry looked down at who was willingly talking to him and was only slightly surprised when he took in the blonde hair and strikingly blue eyes of the Slytherin Ice Queen Daphne Greengrass.


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N/ So as it turns out The Division helps me write rather than hindering me, so this update is a lot faster than predicted and we'll see for the next. Hopefully though this doesn't lead to my phone blowing up again like it did yesterday due to my email alerts for new favourites and follows going to my phone as well.**

Chapter 2: You Are Not Alone

To the casual passerby it would seem a strange scene that a Slytherin would be approaching a Gryffindor in potentially full view of the public as the rivalry was well known between the two houses and the hostility that it breed made it seem an impossible situation that there would be any inter house communications at all. However this was the reality and if any Gryffindor or Slytherin were to pass by right now they would either have to deal with it or deal with their aneurism.

Harry wasn't that surprised that Daphne would still be willing to talk to him after what had happened the previous evening, they had always had a rather odd friendship due to how they first met. It had been back in their second year when most of the school believed that Harry was the heir of Slytherin and as setting the monster from the Chamber of Secrets loose on other students so many were avoiding him or walking away quickly if they encountered him in the halls. Whilst Harry was mostly resistant to how people treated him right now as it wasn't all that outwardly mean, just people seemed unnerved or scared by his presence; he was getting slightly annoyed by their reactions.

It had been while Harry had been aimlessly wandering the corridors of the castle just before the Christmas break when a lot of the students were packing their trunks so that they were ready to depart on the Hogwarts Express the next day to spend Christmas with their family and loved ones. This always made Harry feel a little sad that he didn't really have any family or loved ones as he was fairly certain that the Dursleys would rather be burned alive than be forced to share another Christmas with him in the house ever since he had started Hogwarts and had the choice to stay there. This in turn had led Harry to just wander in a deserted part of the castle as he didn't want to be down beat this close to Christmas and spoil the mood for the others.

While Harry was lost in his thoughts he hadn't been entirely looking where he was going and as a result if this he walked straight into someone who like him had not been entirely focussed on the path in front of them.

"Ow! Did you really need to head butt me so hard Potter?" Came the pained voice of what Harry thought must be a girl in his own year if he were to take a guess.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going, and I'll just get out of your way now." Harry replied rather quietly as he was still feeling rather down at the moment and didn't want to have a new confrontation on his hands if the girl felt he owed her for walking into her.

"No don't go yet Potter, I also wasn't looking where I was going and besides you haven't had a chance to call up your terrible beasty to do untold horrors to me yet!"

The girl had said all of this first with sincerity and then what seemed to be barely suppressed mirth at the very idea of Harry setting some sort of monster on her. Curious as to who would think this so readily Harry looked up to see that he had indeed been correct about the girl's age as she was also a second year like him but what he hadn't counted on was the trim of her robe being green and silver in colour, or that her house crest would be a serpent. The fact that a Slytherin would be so open and almost friendly was somewhat confusing to Harry as most of them had shown him nothing but distain.

Looking in more detail he saw that the girl had medium length blonde hair and very deep blue eyes. He also noted that the girl was rather cute and given a few more years would be beating the boys back with a really big stick if what he had heard about how women mature had been correct. Harry also realised that she obviously knew who he was but he had no idea who she was and decided that he might as well ask.

"Um not to seem rude but I don't believe that I know you, what's your name?"

"I am Daphne Greengrass Mr Potter. You would do well to not forget my name in future." The girl who he now knew to be called Daphne answered in a cool tone that still had an under laced playfulness to it.

"Pleased to meet you Daphne Greengrass and I am really sorry about head butting you, but you seem to think the very idea of me being Slytherin's heir to be ridiculous. Why is it that you don't readily follow the masses and think I'm the one attacking the students?"

Daphne snorted softly at Harry question and looked directly at him before answering. "If the rest of the sheep actually looked up from grazing for a few minutes they would see the truth. There's no way you are the one setting the monster on the students, yes you could be Slytherin's heir as no-one really knows about his descendants, but you are just too nice to be the one attacking people. So what if you are a Parselmouth, that doesn't mean anything, just that you have a rare ability."

Harry was rather taken aback by Daphne's response to his question, but he was feeling slightly better that a complete stranger to him could see that he was not responsible and was laughing about how other people could be so stupid to accuse him of being the one attacking the students.

"Thank you for saying that Daphne, It feels nice for someone to actually not run in terror at seeing me."

"You're welcome Harry, but I also must reprimand you for not knowing that it is most impolite to call a lady by her first name if she has not given you permission. " Harry started to splutter apologies but he then caught the look on Daphne's face and saw that she had a sly grin on her face and realised that she was probably joking; "No matter Harry I have five more years at school in order to train you up properly. I'll see you around."

With that Daphne walked away leaving Harry if anything even more confused than he had been a few minutes ago, did this mean that he and Daphne were friends now. He wasn't sure but he liked her, she didn't run in terror from him or act like a simpering fan girl, it was a nice change of pace. Over the next few months it was made clear to Harry that Daphne had thought that they had parted form their impromptu meeting as friends as she would pop up from time to time when Harry was on his own. He did try to find out how she knew that he was on his own but she would always laugh and change the subject. However Harry saw the logic in them not meeting when he was surrounded by the other Gryffindors as most of them seemed to just see all Slytherins as bad and that Daphne would be trying to do something nefarious to their prized seeker. Harry had tried to casually bring up the idea of having friends in Slytherin as a hypothetically situation with some of the others in Gryffindor but most of them had protested that no-one in their right mind would want to hang around with a Slytherin to which he didn't press the issue, but continued to hang out with Daphne when they could.

It was this pattern that they then followed for most of their third year and it had been Daphne who had made Harry see reason after he had gotten angry at Hermione for telling professor McGonagall about the Firebolt that he had been given for Christmas, not that Hermione knew this, she probably just assumed that one of her arguments had resonated. Harry had tried to keep in contact with Daphne as much as he could during the summer, but Daphne would often write that she had to be careful about sending off the letters as her younger sister Astoria had become suspicious about all the letters Daphne was writing and had come to the conclusion that she had a secret boyfriend that Daphne didn't want their parents knowing about and was being rather annoying about the whole affair.

Suddenly Harry w astron from his reminiscing by a hand on his shoulder as he realised that Daphne had climbed up the rock to sit next to him. As it turned out his prediction in second year should have made him take over Trelawney's job as Daphne had started to blossom into a stunningly attractive young woman who was already attracting the attention of many boys throughout the school even if she said no to all of them.

"Do you want to talk about it Harry?" Daphne asked again and Harry could hear the concern in her voice.

"It's just hard Daphne, they've all known me for three years and I thought that I could count on Ron and Hermione for anything, but now I just feel foolish. They all turned on me for almost nothing and they won't even allow me to defend myself against their accusations, they have all made up their minds and my version of the truth is irrelevant to them."

Daphne scowled at the news that even Harry's closest friends apart from her had all turned on him for events that were out of his control and now were shunning him. Daphne could see Ron Weasley doing so as he had always seemed rather jealous in regards to how Harry was treated by others, but she was extremely disappointed in Hermione as she had expected better from her and to hear that she was acting just as childish and petty as Ron was angered her. However she was torn from her thoughts of anger as Harry had started talking again and Daphne could hear the barely repressed emotions that were within him.

"And now I have to somehow survive a tournament meant for adults with almost no support and people going out of their way to make things difficult for me and to make me feel unwanted. It's just..I...I don't know what to do."

At these last words harry finally lost control over the emotions that he had been trying to keep locked away since last night finally bubbled to the surface and erupted out of him. Harry started to whimper quietly first before he started to cry. Her heart breaking slightly to see him reduced to nothing by the betrayals of his closest friends Daphne did they only thing she could think of and she gathered Harry into a hug and held him while he cried out his emotions. It was a while later that Harry seemed to have calmed down again and as he dried the tears from his face he turned away from Daphne and sighed. Daphne may have held him while he cried which had made him feel strangely safe in her arms, but he knew that she wouldn't want to associate with someone who would show weakness so freely like he did.

"I'm sorry that I forced you to do that Daphne. I'll understand if you want to distance yourself from someone as weak as me." Harry didn't want to lose her, but he didn't expect her to stick around.

However Daphne didn't agree and walk away instead she narrowed her eyes and grabbed hold of Harry and made him look at her; "Oh no you don't Harry Potter, I am not going to let all my training over the past year and a half go down the drain just because you think I would walk away so easily. Face it mister you're going to be stuck with me for a while yet and who cares about the fact that it's just you and me rooting for team Potter, we'll take them all on and show them what idiots they've been."

Harry smiled brightly at Daphne's words and without warning he suddenly pulled her into an affectionate hug, but soon stopped after realising what he was doing. Daphne however didn't make any comment as her face was rather pink right now and she seemed to be slightly dazed. With the most pressing issue being taken care of the two set off back up to the castle to start planning how Harry was going to survive in the tournament.

As they walked back up to the castle Daphne was suddenly hit with something that had been bothering her since they had returned to Hogwarts; "Harry I've been wondering, why you repressed yourself from learning for the first few years that you were here at Hogwarts. I know that your improvement isn't anything to do with your reading over the summer, you had to be holding back in your subjects, but why are you trying so hard now?"

"It's simple Daphne for two reasons; the first is that I want to be able to defend myself and those I care about from harm and by applying myself more this will become easier and the second reason is that I realised that my relatives don't care about my grades here like they did when I went to school with my cousin. No longer do I have to fear the repercussions of beating Dudley in a test so why not do my best."

Daphne could see the logic in this and saw why Harry would have been holding himself back for the past few years, but she didn't press the issue as Harry was still fragile right now and she knew that talking about his relatives was hard. But make no mistake they would be talking about it at some point in the future.

Unknown to Harry and Daphne though there had been a third person present during Harry's breakdown and Daphne's rebuilding of him, this third person had been Daphne's younger sister Astoria who was curious as to where her sister had been going and had decided to follow her. Astoria had been shocked when Daphne had not only approached Harry Potter but that they had spoken like good friends which was the moment that Astoria realised that the secret letter that Daphne had been sending over the last two summers had been to him.

This had left Astoria in somewhat of a quandary as she had been hearing since her first year from Draco Malfoy and some of the older Slytherins that Harry Potter was nothing more than a loudmouth, talentless braggart who boasted about his non-existent skills almost non-stop, which had led to Astoria having a rather poor view of the famous Gryffindor. However she was rethinking her previous judgement of Harry Potter as she had been there when Harry had broken down crying in Daphne's arms and she had heard what had been said both before and after this event. The arrogant boy of Malfoy's tales was nowhere to be seen as Harry wasn't boasting about how easily he would win the tournament or how easily he had cheated to get his name selected. No she could only see a scared and overwhelmed boy who was only a few years older than her confiding in her sister that he was scared of what was to come. It seemed to Astoria that if Malfoy had lied about this, what else he was lying about when it came to Harry Potter and the rest of the Gryffindors.

It was several hours later that Harry found himself once more inside the Great Hall for dinner, but in a much better frame of mind than he had been that morning as he had spent a majority of the afternoon with Daphne looking up spells and clues as to what the first task might be as none of the tournament officials had told him what the task would be. Daphne had split off from Harry before they returned downstairs as it would be easier on the both of them if they weren't seen together until they were ready for the backlash that the two of them being friends would create.

However something happened that Harry had not been expecting from any of his fellow Gryffindors for at least the next few months if not the remainder of the year, someone approached him without any signs of anger, only determination.

Harry was almost doubly surprised that it was Neville Longbottom who was approaching him as he had always gotten on fine with Neville despite the slight argument they had during first year about the Philosophers' stone, but he wasn't a close friend like Ron and Hermione had been.

"Hello Harry"

"Hi Neville, Is there something I can do for you?" Harry asked slightly wary as to what Neville was talking to him for.

"No there isn't Harry this is about what I can do for you as I am reactivating the Potter/Longbottom alliance if you agree to it. I choose now to activate it again as I see that you are under dire circumstances and it would go against the honour and everything it means to be a Longbottom if I was to not offer an alliance at this time."

Harry was too surprised to say anything for a few minutes but he finally figured how to ask his many questions that he for Neville. "Why now Neville, why did you not extend this offer of alliance in our first year?"

Neville smiled slightly before he answered; "Unfortunately harry I was unaware of the old alliance between our two houses until this summer just gone, I knew that our parents knew each other well and were friends, but I did not know that it went as deep as a family alliance."

Harry took in what Neville was saying and he now realised that Neville wasn't trying to get something for himself, he was simply doing what was right rather than easy and he felt his respect for Neville climb up a few more notches.

"Thank you Neville, I accept your offer to reactivate the alliance between our two houses."

As Harry and Neville grasped each other's forearms to symbolise the reforming of an alliance of brothers in arms a faint glow was seen emitting from both Harry and Neville which almost no-one knew the meaning of but if someone had looked at Professor Dumbledore at this moment they would have seen him smiling peacefully. It had now been almost fourteen years since the Potter/Longbottom alliance had been in effect, but Dumbledore knew that if history was anything to go by he could expect great things from the two young Gryffindors in the future.

As Harry sat enjoying his dinner with Neville he thought about how he along with Ron and Hermione had started being called the Golden trio by some of the other Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs due to them sticking together through everything and the things they accomplished together. Now Harry was fairly certain that the Golden Trio was broken and would not be fixed even if Ron and Hermione came to their senses and apologised to Harry the damage had already been done for them to return to how things were before. However know that although he had lost their support he was now free to choose his own new friends and possibly create a wider group of friends than he had had before. As much as the old group was now burning into ash, the new group that Harry would start to form with Daphne and Neville at his side would rise to be stronger than the last.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A.N/ So I finally got around to updating this story as well. Again hopefully I will get more chapter out soon but with RTUK this weekend nothing will be written. I just wanted to get this posted before the long weekend.**_

Chapter 3: The New Golden Trio

Over the next few weeks the denizens of Hogwarts castle saw a rapid change in the attitude of one Harry Potter as well as Daphne Greengrass and Neville Longbottom. Where once they had seen that Harry was upset from the behaviour of 90% of the school, he had started to show a sign of both ignoring what was said behind his back and sometimes to his face or simply no longer caring what the masses thought of him. This was shown very clearly when Draco Malfoy tried to bait him out with his 'Support Cedric Diggory-The REAL Hogwarts champion' badges that would then morph into the message 'Potter stinks' whenever there were no teachers present. In the past the other students would have had a show of anger and possible spell fire between the two rivals, something that now they were hoping for, that did not happen. Instead of showing anger Harry Potter would simply glance at Malfoy with a bored expression on his face before smirking at him and walking off. This attitude annoyed Malfoy to no end and left the remaining students rather confused about how Harry Potter had changed in such a short space of time.

The answer lay in what he was spending his time doing now. Whereas in the past when Harry had free time he would do the bare minimum to achieve a passing grade with his homework he was now actively completing it to the best of his ability and instead of then proceeding to slack off once he was done, Harry was now pushing himself to learn more than ever before. He was routinely joined by both Daphne and Neville whenever they could as they wanted to help Harry do as much as possible as well as furthering their own learning. However both Daphne and Neville were unable to spend as much time helping Harry as they might have liked as they still had to attend lessons which he didn't due to his status as a Triwizard champion. This usually meant that they would try and eat dinner quickly and not linger if they had no need to before meeting up with Harry at the room that he had found on the seventh floor. It had taken him a while to find it again, but after he had walked past the area where the door had appeared previously three times while thinking about a room for three people to read and train in the door had reappeared and the room had provided exactly what they needed. Once they understood how the room worked they started to test the limits of what they could with the room such as limiting who could and could not gain access to the room while it was in use and whether or not they could change it while they were inside the room.

What they discovered was that as long as loopholes were removed from the equation then it would almost be impossible for them to be disturbed and that they could make the room slightly larger or smaller on command as well as making tables and chairs appear when requested, but too much change in the room wouldn't happen which they guessed was some sort of safety feature to protect the room's users if there was something hazardous to them if the room changed too much in its form.

This had only taken them a few days once they had started to use the room every day as the majority of the student body was rather hostile towards Harry and through association Daphne and Neville had become outcasts to many as well. Harry was happy with how he was doing things now and the fact that he had Daphne and Neville's support meant more to him they could potentially comprehend at this point in time, but he noticed that Neville seemed to be slightly quieter than he had been the last few days and asked him about it.

"What's wrong Neville, you've been rather quiet the last few days?"

"It's just that I don't know how much help I am going to be with helping you prepare for the tasks. You've seen my spell work it's nothing special and the only subject that I truly do well in is Herbology. I just don't want to hold you and Daphne back if you're trying to do something amazing but I can't." Neville replied rather morosely.

Harry was about to respond to his new friend to try and make him feel better, but he was cut off by Daphne who was wearing one of her 'You are going to shut up and listen to me talk' expressions that he found strangely endearing.

"You listen to me Neville Longbottom I will not have you putting yourself down any longer. I know that you haven't had the best start and that people call you squib behind your back when they think that you can't hear, but that doesn't have to continue any more. We will not abandon you if you struggle, we will help you overcome your struggles even if we have to slow down. That's what friends do for each other!"

Daphne finished her rant by glaring at Neville as if to challenge him to say differently or for him to decide that even after such a speech he still would be a hindrance. Of course Neville's self preservation instincts kicked in and he just nodded along with whatever Daphne had said so as not to incur her wrath. However when Daphne had gone back to her reading he leaned over to Harry and whispered; "Daphne's kind of scary when she gets like that, how do you deal with that?"

Harry looked at him for a few seconds before answering; "Honestly? I just nod and try not to disagree with her; I value my own life to much to think about arguing."

"Good to see that I've got you boys so well trained!"

Harry and Neville's heads snapped around at the voice and realised that Daphne had heard their conversation as she had a rather sly grin on her face and they shuddered slightly at what this might mean for them.

"Just a few more years and I think you might be ready to go out into the world." Daphne continued before she mock sniffled and wiped an imaginary tear from her eye; "My boys have grown up so fast and they're almost ready to be proper gentlemen!"

Daphne only just got to the end of her 'emotional speech' before she broke down giggling at the rather confused look on Neville's face and the fact that Harry was lightly banging his head on the table in front of him. Once Daphne had managed to calm down and Neville and Harry were able to stop their respective ways of dealing with Daphne's mock emotional display she then grew serious as she looked at the two of them.

"There is something I wanted to speak to both of you about actually. My friend Tracey has been becoming increasingly suspicious as to where I keep going and why she isn't allowed to come with me when I disappear. I was thinking that to alleviate her suspicions so she won't stop pestering me about it is that she should join us for this advanced studying that we're doing as I know she wouldn't mind at all being able to advance faster in her studies, but I wanted to ask you before I invited her along. I know that you Harry don't really care about who is in what house even if they are Slytherin, you just hate Malfoy, but I wasn't sure about you Neville as members of my house have been less than kind to you."

Both Harry and Neville were somewhat surprised with what Daphne had just told them as they hadn't expected her to ask permission to bring someone else in with them as she was an equal partner so she shouldn't need to, but they both felt a warm feeling that Daphne would take their views and wishes into such a strong account. Harry was first to speak but he felt that Neville would agree with him.

"I think I speak for both of us here, but I would welcome someone else joining us and you didn't really need to ask permission to invite your friend along. This group was as much your idea as it was mine and Neville's so you have an equal say in anything we do." Looking across at Neville, Harry saw him nod at him to acknowledge that he did agree with what he had told Daphne.

"Well then, I better give Tracey her invite to the most exclusive club in all Hogwarts." Daphne replied with a slight smirk on her face.

It wasn't until late morning the next day that Daphne was able to talk to Tracey as she had been busy not only in class, but also keeping up her 'Ice Queen' persona to the masses who had the gall to question her as to why she wasn't treating Harry like pond scum when they had all turned their collective backs on him.

During the walk between Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts, Daphne was able to talk to her friend quickly.

"Hey Tracey, I know you've been suspicious about where I'm going most evenings, but there is a good reason for all the cloak and dagger. The others in the group said they were fine with you joining us if you want to."

Tracey looked at her oldest friend critically, trying to see if there was any sign of duress that might mean that Daphne was not meeting this group out of her own free will, but because they were forcing her to. However Tracey found no sign that her friend was being forced to do anything against her will and so replied; "Sure. You know that I want to know how your marks in Defence and Charms are shooting up even higher than they have been previously."

Daphne smiled at Tracey mysteriously before she responded; "Good. I'll show you the group after dinner."

Across the castle was Harry who was having a rather less than pleasant conversation with Angelina Johnson who was the top pick for Gryffindor Quidditch captain the next year since the cup had been cancelled this year due to the Tournament. Harry had been trying to find Neville who had left before him after Transfiguration, which Harry was still attending so that he could try and learn as much as possible and not miss any spell work that might be helpful during the First task. However just as he saw Neville slip inside the classroom that they had been meeting Daphne in he was accosted by said Quidditch player.

"Potter!" Harry sighed that he was so scorned upon by his housemates that they would call him only by his surname like Malfoy would.

"What do you want Johnson?" Harry asked in a monotone voice, not wanting to be delayed by this talk that he knew would be unpleasant he didn't beat around the bush. Angelina sneered at him like he wasn't worthy of breathing the same air as she was.

"All I want is to tell you that we have had a vote and by rule of majority you have been voted off of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. We don't want to play with a liar and a cheater as you could harm our chances of winning the cup if you were to do something nefarious whilst in a match. We have this in writing with our signatures and Professor McGonagall's who had to agree as we had majority that you were to be kicked off of the team."

Harry looked at her mutely for a few seconds before he looked down at the parchment that she was brandishing at him to see that she was telling the truth that McGonagall had indeed signed the petition to get him kicked off the team, but Harry could only see Johnson's, Bell's and Spinnet's signatures on the parchment and no sign of the Weasley twins rather distinctive handwriting anywhere.

"How can you have majority when neither Fred nor George have signed this petition and I sure as bloody well won't?" Harry asked with a hint of steel in his tone. Angelina smirked unpleasantly at him again before she answered.

"As you are the team member in whom the petition is about you don't have a vote in whether you stay or go, as for Fred and George they would have been given a chance to fight for your corner had they so wished to, but they didn't even bother to show up for the meeting to discuss this. Those boys are so irresponsible that they just had to get a detention right before we we're supposed to have that meeting."

Harry heard a hint of maliciousness in his now former Quidditch team mate's voice and he was fairly certain that she had engineered a situation that got the twins put in detention so that they had no say in the matter.

"You really are a vindictive, petty bitch aren't you Johnson. Fine then I'm off the team, I wouldn't want to fly with you as captain anyway!" Harry stated as he pushed past the older Gryffindor and strode off towards the classroom where he was due to meet Neville. He heard Angelina react to what he had said about her but she made no move to confront him or cast any spells towards him so he continued on and pushed any thoughts he had about her out of his mind.

Making his way finally towards the classroom that harry and Neville had agreed to meet Daphne in for some reason which was odd as they would normally meet in the Room of Requirement after dinner so that they could continue to work on their spell knowledge as well as potions and runes that might be helpful for them to know.

As Harry entered the classroom he saw that both Neville and Daphne were already there and he firmly shut the door behind him to hopefully keep out the idiots in the rest of the school. Daphne looked up as Harry closed the door and while she was smiling at first her expression dropped quickly when she saw the sad loo on Harry's face.

"What's wrong Harry?"

Harry sighed a bit to try and regain control more thoroughly over his emotions than he currently was before he spoke; "It's nothing much just another one of my vindictive house deciding that I am no longer worthy to play on their Quidditch team."

Neville looked up sharply at Harry's words as he enjoyed Quidditch even if he wasn't very good on a broom. "Johnson?"

"Johnson." Harry agreed "I thought I knew her, but apparently she is just a jealous little girl masquerading as a seventeen year old witch."

Neville snorted slightly at the rather adept analogy that Harry used to describe Angelina Johnson; "She will be eating her words next year. It doesn't matter whether or not any of the idiots like you, you were the best seeker in the school and without you and your crazy catches, and they might as well give up the cup now."

Harry smirked slightly at the knowledge that Angelina may well try to go back on what she said and ask him to play seeker again and he would take no small amount of joy in telling her that he would never fly for her or possibly the Gryffindor team ever again.

"Anyway why are we here Daphne, why not the Room?"

"Well it's because it's not just my friend Tracey who wants to join in with us. Tracey and I's mutual friend Blaise Zambini also wants to join in as he has been shunted out of all social groups recently and would like to come to a place where he wouldn't be judged."

Both Harry and Neville looked confused slightly at Daphne's words as they had seen Blaise around Hogwarts in the corridors and he always seemed to have at least one friend with him between classes, so it was strange that he would now be a social pariah of almost Harry's level.

"Why has everyone abandoned him apart from you and Tracey? Last time I checked Blaise was a pretty popular guy, especially amongst the ladies. "Harry said trying to understand why Blaise might need a new group of people to call friends. Daphne looked slightly nervous about revealing why Blaise wanted to join them, but she reasoned with herself that Harry and Neville were not like the other morons who inhabited the castle.

"Well it's because over the summer Blaise revealed that he is in fact gay which doesn't sit well with the die-hard pureblood traditionalists such as Malfoy. They see it as the ultimate shame if you can't or won't carry on your family name so he has been shunned by all the pure bloods who follow this apart from me, Tracey and his mother who couldn't care less as long as Blaise is happy."

Harry took a few seconds to process this new information before he snorted slightly; "Is that all, I thought you were going to tell us that he was a vampire or something. I don't care if he is gay, it's his life and who am I to dictate who can and cannot join simply due to sexual preferences."

Daphne was somewhat surprised at Harry being an advocate for free living without anyone saying that what you liked was wrong but she still wanted things to be harmonious in the group so she turned to Neville to see what his reaction was.

Neville simply responded with; "What he said." This made both Harry and Daphne laugh slightly at another pure blood who didn't subscribe to the outdated and generally moronic view that two boys or two men who loved one another were wrong. It showed that all it took was some open eyes and a little less hate and bigotry and the world could be a far more accepting place.

After dinner the new trio met with Tracey and Blaise outside of the Room of requirement and once inside Daphne explained that both Harry and Neville had no problems whatsoever with them joining in, and that they had no problems at all with Blaise being gay. This in itself made both Tracey and Blaise silent with surprise as they had not counted on Daphne telling them, or that they would be so welcoming and not bigoted.

It was Tracey who then broke the silence after learning that the bigoted hateful boy that Draco Malfoy had always bad mouthed Harry as did not exist and this open minded and friendly boy was here instead.

"So what have you three been doing all this time? You can't have just been working on learning new spell theory as I've been watching you Daph in classes and your spell casting has gone up in power considerably."

"You're right Tracey; we have been practising spells as much as we can since this room will create test dummies for us to practice on as well as crash mats when we practice against each other."

Tracey seemed to have guessed this much already but Harry could see in her eyes that she was suspicious about how they were progressing so quickly with their work if they weren't taking books from the library.

"However Daph I'm not stupid, none of you three have been checking out books from the library nor do I see any of them here. So how are you learning all of these new spells without using your closest resource for learning?"

Daphne gave a side-ways glance at Harry as she was unsure as to how she should answer this question due to the sensitive nature of the truth as to who had sent Harry the books. Seeing her glance, Harry interjected himself into the conversation; "We are learning out of books from a private Library. I recently came into contact with a friend of my parents who was more than happy to help with our request for more in depth knowledge than we would be able to find in the Hogwarts library."

Harry hoped that this answer would be enough to quell Tracey's interest in the subject as he would be damned if he would just tell people he'd only known properly for a few minutes about Sirius. With how it was known in the majority of the wizarding world that 'Sirius Black betrayed his friends and was Voldemort's right hand man' combined with the logic that was spouted that 'everyone knows that he did it' meant that it would be more than likely that they might go running to a teacher as Harry in their eyes would be under the Imperius curse or something similar if he told them that Sirius was innocent.

Tracey looked at him suspiciously before she replied; "A fair enough explanation for now Harry, but I know that there is more to it than you are telling us. I hope that in the future we gain your trust so that you will let us know who this person is that is helping you and had access to such advanced spell books."

With that out of the way Harry got down to showing Tracey and Blaise what they had been practicing in regards to spells. Suffice to say that both of them were impressed with the level and quality of spells that they were being taught by Harry who seemed to work with them like he had always known how to use them, despite the fact that he himself had only learnt some of them a few weeks ago.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A.N/ So yet again here we are with a new chapter many months after I said I would try and get it out. Lately I have been finding it hard to write and this combined with some changes to my personal life had meant that most of my creative power for writing Fanfiction has been taken from me, but I am trying to ease myself back into writing. I won't make any promises for the next chapter as we all know that I won't keep it, but know that I will finish this story eventually. even if it takes me several years.**_

 _'Italics' - Parseltongue_

Chapter Four: First Task Preparations

It was a week before the First Task and Harry was starting to become edgy and nervous as he still had no idea as to what he might be facing in it despite trying to find out as much as possible that had happened in past tournaments. However Harry was happy that both Tracey and Blaise were good additions to the group as both were intelligent, but they brought more than simple intelligence to the table as Harry found that once they had started to settle in that Tracey had a rather quick wit as well as Blaise's rather dry sarcasm that he found he rather liked.

Initially Blaise had still been nervous about his sexual preferences around two Gryffindors that were definitely hetero-sexual, but his fears were unfounded as Harry who had watched his cousin Dudley bully a teenager on Privet Drive who had come out as being gay had tried to find out why Dudley was being so mean to the other boy. From what he gathered from information he could find at the local library and generally knowing that most of Dudley's ideas about right and wrong were twisted he came to the conclusion over a year ago that there was nothing wrong with being homo-sexual and anyone who shamed or bullied another for being gay was either a bigot or was just less than confident with their own sexual preferences and felt the need to take out that uncertainty on someone who knew who they were.

Neville had been much the same way as despite his grandmother's rather traditionalist views on many subjects she had taught Neville from a young age that love and attraction comes in many forms and as long as both parties consented to the other's feelings being expressed then there was nothing wrong with it.

Harry found that a lot of Blaise's sarcasm came out when he was looking at the way that Harry and Daphne interacted with each other, coming out with quips that if they danced around each other anymore that they might be able to pull off an acceptable tango at the Yule ball that would most likely be happening. This had led to both Harry and Daphne blushing rather heavily though neither pushed the subject as they were still trying to figure out their own feelings before they embarked on understanding someone else's.

It ended up only being four days before the First task that Harry found out what he would be facing. As luck would have in Daphne's father had been talking to a friend that worked in the Department of International Magical Co-operation as he had mentioned in passing that four dragons had been shipped to Hogwarts for use in the first task. Hearing this Cyrus Greengrass hastened home to write his daughter a letter about what her friend would be facing in the First task and some hints about how he might be able to combat the dragon he would have to face. Cyrus had been somewhat suspicious when Daphne had started to receive letters from someone with a snow white owl, which was rarely seen in the UK, and despite the guilt he felt over breaking into her privacy he had intercepted one of her letters before she could open in one morning and found out that her friend was none other than Harry Potter. Cyrus had read the letter thoroughly and realised that this boy was not trying to gain anything from his eldest daughter except for friendship, and as such he let the correspondence continue. Knowing that Harry Potter was the fourth champion in the newly revived Tri-wizard tournament and only fourteen, Cyrus knew that despite the fact that the First task was supposed to test a champion's daring he would give his daughter all the information that Harry would need as sending a fourteen year old wizard up against a dragon was insanity.

Later that day when Daphne received the letter from her father she was curious as to why her father would contact her so urgently without coming to Hogwarts directly. All curiousness was washed away as Daphne read the letter and it was quickly replaced with fear. Fear at what Harry had to face. Fear that he could be seriously injured or killed. Fear that she wouldn't get over her own insecurities and tell him how she felt before it was too late.

In the end Daphne just told Harry straight about what the First task would be without any sugar coating just so that she could share the information and start trying to find a way to keep Harry alive during the task. As Daphne had thought, Harry reacted with an almost textbook reaction to the news that he would have to go into an arena with a dragon that would most likely charcoal him or eat him if he made the slightest wrong move. Harry's face shifted from pale white to a slight green tinge as he fought to stop himself from throwing up, finally he looked back up at Daphne and asked;

"Are you sure your Dad heard right Daphne. Please tell me that he heard wrong."

Daphne almost broke at seeing the scared look on Harry's face but she had to be honest with him; "No Harry. My father was talking to a friend of his that works in International Magical Co-operation so this is one of the most truthful statements that you will ever hear. There is a small ray of light though." Harry had looked downtrodden at first but now perked back up when he heard that there was some good news

"My father was able to suggest some way that you might be able to subdue the dragon as he highly doubts that you would be required to defeat or kill the dragon as it takes at least six dragon handlers to subdue a dragon enough to cage one. He suggests using a conjectivitus curse on its eyes to blind it temporarily, but noted that this might make it more aggressive. He also wrote that you would be allowed to summon something from outside the stadium to help you like a broom or a distraction for the dragon. Finally he mentions about your Parseltongue abilities, now how he knows about them is beyond me but he does say that there have been rumours for centuries that those that could speak to snakes might also be able to speak to dragons, but as the ability is so rare they have never proved either way as to whether or not a Parselmouth can speak with dragons."

"Then It's a complete gamble to whether or not the dragon I end up facing would be able to understand me or not. I might be able to reason with it or it will just try and barbeque me. And then we haven't even considered that even if I can talk to it, the dragon might well think anything I say to be lies." Harry replied rather despondently.

At seeing how downcast Harry was Daphne wanted to tell him that everything would work out and that he would pass through the First Task with flying colours but she knew they would be only lying to themselves and she was already feeling fear for her friend.

It was several days later that Harry saw Cedric walking towards the Great Hall when he realised that it was more than likely that Cedric did not know about the Dragon he would soon be facing, and since Harry didn't really care at this point who actually won the tournament as long as he survived it, he would help out his fellow champions.

"Cedric! Wait up a second, I need to talk to you" Harry called to the older student from across the entrance to the Great Hall. Several Hufflepuff students turned to glare at Harry for in their minds this false idol talking to their champion like they were equal or like Harry was worth using up Cedric's time. However Cedric was not as close minded or stubborn as his house mates and upon hearing Harry call out to him, he turned and stopped letting Harry catch up to him.

"What do you need to talk to me about Harry?" Cedric asked as Harry drew closer to him.

"Not here Cedric, it's about the First Task." Harry murmured to the older boy and motioned to an old classroom that had fallen into disuse just past the entrance to the Great Hall. Cedric's eyebrows rose slightly but he followed Harry into the room before shutting the door behind him.

"Cedric the First Task is dragons." Harry blurted out before he could give Cedric time to speak.

Cedric looked shocked as to what harry was telling him and it took him several moments before he was able to respond to him in a rather low croaky tone; "Are..are you sure Harry?"

"Positive. Daphne's father has a friend in the Department of Magical creatures who was part of the team that organized the dragons to be brought over."

"I see now why you didn't want to tell me this outside where anyone could hear. The other students would probably panic at the mere thought of us facing down dragons. Anyway thank you for telling me this, I'm fairly sure that neither Krum nor Delacour would tell me this information free of charge."

"You're welcome Cedric. It just seemed wrong to with hold information that could keep you alive in this tournament." Harry replied as he made to leave the room, but turned back as Cedric spoke.

"I've tried to ask the rest of my house to stop wearing those stupid badges, but a lot of them seem to think that you are infringing on their glory as a house even though I've said multiple times that you looked terrified when they called your name out. However I think if I tell them that you told me what the First Task is then they might start to come around."

"Can you wait until after the First Task to tell them Cedric? I'm pretty sure the way that I found out could be classed as cheating and some of your housemates aren't known for keeping their mouths shut."

Cedric looked like he might try and come up with a reason to tell his housemates earlier, but within a minute he simply nodded his head and allowed Harry to exit the room. As Harry made his way into the Great Hall he didn't see a slight ripple of a disillusioned figure standing nearby who then moved away as Cedric exited the room a few moments after Harry.

Harry was feeling good at helping out Cedric as he knew that with his life currently at Hogwarts being the way it was, it would be unlikely that he would feel good until the evening when he could meet up with Daphne, Neville, Tracey and Blaise. However the world being balanced in the worst possible ways meant that just as Harry was sitting down at the Gryffindor table away from everyone as per usual he was accosted by people he would have rather stayed away from him.

"So 'Champion Potter', do you have your hospital bed picked out for when you fail in the First Task?"

Harry sighed to himself and turned to face Ron Weasley who was flanked by Hermione Granger and Dean Thomas. Harry really didn't want to fight with them as he no longer wanted to make up with them or go back to how things had been before his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire, but they apparently had decided that he hadn't been berated enough lately.

"If he hasn't then he is a fool. Harry is nothing without us there to hold his hand through everything and he only has Neville and that Slytherin to help him now, he might as well forfeit now and spare himself the embarrassment when he fails at the First Task!" This had come from Hermione which cut Harry deeper than he thought it would as he had thought that he no longer cared what any of the sheep thought about him. This however was Harry only lying to himself as he had counted Hermione as his best friend earlier in the year as she had helped him so much over the past few years that he couldn't help but see her as such. Having to listen to her spout off so much bullshit about him was rather saddening as Harry had believed that Hermione being that bit older than most of their year would mean that she would be more mature and understand why he was pushing himself harder than before and actually give Harry the benefit of the doubt when it came to the debacle surrounding the Triwizard tournament.

No, this was not the case. Despite the fact that Hermione might well not even be alive if it wasn't for Harry was irrelevant, at the current moment in time Hermione was a petty, vindictive and arrogant teenage girl who had convinced herself that she was the best at everything and the only way that Harry could ever do better than her was by cheating.

"So nothing to say for yourself 'Champion Potter'? Do you believe yourself so much better than us that you don't think you need to answer when someone is talking to you?" Ron had started speaking again after Harry hadn't responded, he had hoped that by staying quiet and not rising to their bait that they would get bored quickly and leave him alone, but it seemed that Ron was in that sort of mood today to be an asshole.

"I don't really know what to say to either of you. You have made up your minds about me and I'm not going to try and persuade you that there is any other viewpoint as I would just be wasting my own time and energy. I don't know why you insist of speaking to me when you've already made it clear that I have almost no friends in Gryffindor anymore." Harry tried to be as neutral as possible while sneaking in his comments about them speaking to him to try and get them to see that they were being massively hypocritical as they claimed previously to hate bullies like Malfoy, but were perfectly happy to bully Harry when the timing was right.

"We came to talk to you Potter to make you see what you're missing by continuing to lie to us. If you just admit that you cheated your way into the Tournament and how you have been doing so well in class, then maybe we can start thinking about forgiving you but until then you are an outcast." This had come from Ron but Harry had seen Hermione nodding along with him at certain points and most noticeably when Ron mentioned how Harry was doing so well in class, which Harry knew was driving her insane currently.

"Tell you what; if I survive the First Task then we can talk after that." Harry replied trying to remain as neutral as possible so that they would leave him alone. Hearing these words made Ron smirk slightly as he turned and walked down to the other end of the table as far away from Harry as possible.

It was much later in the Room of Requirement that Harry had finally reappeared for Neville and Daphne who would never have said it bit were getting slightly worried as to where Harry could possibly be and as such voiced as much.

"Harry what happened to you? You got called out of Potions for that Wand Weighing ceremony and then you just disappeared until we just found you here."

Harry was looking rather tired and in need of rest, but he needed to keep looking for a strategy for his dragon and had been jerked awake as Daphne and Neville entered the room. "Well there was the Wand Weighing ceremony and that's all I thought there would be, but then they insisted on taking dozens of photos of the champions for the Daily Prophet which took so long that it was practically dinner by the time we were done. As you know I try and spend as little time in the Great Hall as possible right now so I ate quickly and left before most people were out of classes."

This cleared up where he had been but Daphne was still worried about Harry as he looked rather tired and worn out like he had been pushing himself too hard and not getting enough rest.

"Have you figured out a plan B in case talking to the dragon in Parseltongue doesn't work?"

"Sort of. I think that I could probably summon my Firebolt and possibly fly around enough to get the dragon to either take off of become confused and failing that I might be able to transfigure something that would distract the dragon for long enough for me to get whatever it is that we have to collect and then get out again."

"That all sounds rather risky Harry, are you sure that there is no other strategy that you would like to try as opposed to the others that you have formulated?" Daphne asked with concern heavy in her eyes.

"I'm sure that this is all I've got that I would actually be able to do. I know I have been improving rapidly this year, but a lot of the magic that would be capable of taking on a dragon is far out of my reach so I think these ideas for what to do against the dragon I have to face are the best I can do. I mean it's not like I can summon up a tame dragon to see if I can speak to it."

Daphne first looked solemn at Harry's words but then as he finished speaking she looked thoughtful before breaking into a wide smile; "You are a genius Harry!" She exclaimed.

Harry and Neville looked at each other with mirrored confused expressions as what had Daphne not only so excited about, but why she was calling Harry a genius.

Seeing their puzzled expressions Daphne rolled her eyes and continued in order to let the two boys in on her thoughts. "You might not be able to summon up a tame dragon, but you could use your cloak to go and try talking to the dragons tonight. The enclosure they're in must be warded to stop fire from getting out but you could speak and they would hear you."

Harry and Neville swapped out mirrored confused expressions for ones of excited and trepidation as Daphne's idea had merit but it still meant gambling on the idea that Harry would able to use Parseltongue to speak to a dragon.

Having no other ideas Harry waited until almost everyone in Gryffindor tower had gone to bed before he slipped upstairs to put on his invisibility cloak and with Neville's help he snuck out of the common room and off into the night. Traversing the castle at night was easy enough as he no longer had to fight through the crowds of other students who would try and make his life as difficult as possible by blocking as much of the corridor as they could and then walking in such a way that made passing them a challenge without pushing past them which would give them an excuse to say or do something nasty to him. However it was the sheer fact that he was invisible that made it easier as he didn't have to worry about the patrolling prefects, teachers or ghosts as they couldn't see him and after years of living with the Dursley's Harry could walk completely silently when he needed to.

As Harry reached the doors outside, he caught sight of a large figure outside the Beauxbatons carriage who he recognised as he drew closer was Hagrid. Why Hagrid was here at night was made clear when the door to the carriage opened and Madam Maxime stepped out, closing the door behind her quietly. She then joined Hagrid and the two of them started walking off towards the Forbidden forest which made Harry instinctively follow them as he had a feeling that Hagrid was going to be showing Madam Maxime the dragons as part of the task as Hagrid loved dangerous creatures and he wouldn't be able to resist showing off when Madam Maxime was around as it was a poorly kept secret that Hagrid had a crush on her as one of the only female part giants that was attractive.

Harry's assumption was proven correct less than ten minutes later when he rounded a corner on the path through the forest and emerged into a huge clearing. In this clearing he could see four large cages that held the dragons that the champions would have to face, all of which Harry recognised on sight due to his extensive reading up on dragons ever since Daphne had told him of what the First Task would entail. He could see that he might well be facing off against one of the most dangerous dragons in the world as he saw one was the feared Hungarian Horntail which was famous for being extremely vicious and very hard to subdue. The next potential was a Chinese Fireball which could launch fireballs as far as half a mile if the books Harry had read had been accurate. The final two dragons were the Ukrainian Ironbelly and the Swedish Short Snout which while were still dangerous in their own right, they had strengths more in defence against attackers than the other two dragons. This alone made Harry hope that however it would be decided which dragon would face off against which champion, he would have one of the latter two dragons rather than the former as he could lure them away if the Parseltongue didn't end up working before hurry back for whatever they would need to get from the task.

Harry waited until Hagrid and Madam Maxime had left the forest again before he shed the invisibility cloak and approached the closest dragon which was the Horntail. It took Harry a few attempts before he could start hissing as he was trying to visualise a snake in his mind but he couldn't so he just tried talking to the dragon and was surprised when the Parseltongue came easier than it had before. The Horntail opened its eyes when it heard Harry hissing but could not identify the source so what happened next almost made him pass out from shock.

 _"Valeriya, why must you use such lowbrow speech, don't you know that it is beneath us to speak as plainly as a lowly grass serpent?"_

 _"That's not me Elder Piroska, one of the two legged stick wavers is standing in front of you. I think it is making that noise"_

Harry froze in fear as the Horntail turned round to look directly at him with her huge yellow eyes. Knowing that one wrong move could lead him to being incinerated, Harry stood perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe. Although it sounded like the dragons were speaking Parseltongue, Harry could make out other sounds mixed in with the hisses that didn't quite make sense to him as it sounded like the dragon that he thought was named Valeriya kept referring to the Horntail as 'Elder' which wasn't a part of the language that Harry had encountered before.

 _"Let me see you wand wielder! I know you're there I can smell you. I can smell your fear"_

Knowing he had no choice, Harry stepped up to the bars of the cage that the Horntail occupied and into the light.

 _"Now that we can see you little wizard we want to know why you are here and why you speak our language so poorly?"_

What happened next surprised Harry as he had been sure that he would find it difficult to speak to these dragons due to not being familiar with them as well as being scared for his life.

 _"I had come to see if I could strike a bargain with one of your number Elder. I have been forced into this tournament and I do not wish to fight you or any of your kin as I had hoped to find a peaceful solution to the task."_

 _"Why should we believe you little wizard? Your kind has tricked us before and we do not forget what was promised to us by your ancestors before they reneged on their oaths and promises. They promised us our own land to live in peace, but they used us and then they tried to exterminate us. So few of our number remain now that we do not take risks unless direly needed. So I ask you why should we believe anything you say human!"_

" _I know my words mean little right now but the task is in a few days and if you want to test my sincerity I promise on my honour as a wizard that when I step into the arena I won't try and cast any spells at any of your kin as long as they let me complete the task. You said earlier that you could smell my fear, is it possible for you to tell if I am lying to you?"_

The dragon elder Piroska looked directly at Harry for several long uncomfortable moments as she breathed in his smell, before she muttered a few words too fast for Harry to catch and he hoped that they had not been 'burn him'.

 _"You speak truth little wizard, you do not smell of deceit and for now we will agree to your proposal. If you speak to one of us during the battle we will try to solve it peacefully. But know this little wizard, if you dare renege on our deal then we will kill you! Now go, we are tired."_

Harry backed off slightly from the cages before he bowed to the dragon Piroska, he wasn't entirely sure why he had done so but he felt that it was right to do so. It was only once Harry had put back on his invisibility cloak and started back towards the castle that he realised just how fast his heart had been beating and how weak his legs were feeling currently, but it had been worth the risk.

It ended up being slightly trickier getting back into the castle than it had been leaving it as more teachers were on patrol than previously and Harry had to double back and wait in empty rooms a few times in order to dodge the professors in narrow corridors where they might have walked into him.

The portrait of the Fat Lady wasn't all the amused to see him out so late, but after receiving the password, she relented and let Harry back into Gryffindor tower. Harry had expected it to be completely empty at this time of night so he was startled when he recognised the Weasley Twins spread out over two of the sofas in the common room and they jerked awake as the portrait hole closed behind Harry with a snap.

"So Harry, where have you been at such an hour? Visiting your mistress perhaps?" One of them asked.

"Uhh...well you see...I was just...uh." Was all Harry could splutter and stammer back at the twins, until he realised that both of them were grinning at him.

"Say no more Harry, if we had girlfriends as beautiful as Miss Greengrass then we would also be sneaking out at all hours to see them too!"

This brought Harry up short as he had been sure that Fred had been dating Angelina and George Alicia but apparently he was wrong. However before he could ask Fred or George continued.

"Anyway the real reason we wanted to speak to you is that we finally found out what Angelina said to you about Quidditch next year. At first we couldn't believe what she had said and done to you as anyone with half a brain would know that you didn't enter your name in the cup as you looked terrified when your name was called out, which admittedly puts Ron and Hermione in a bit of a tough place as I'm not sure they have half a brain between the two of them, but after hearing what she did to make sure you were voted off the team. We couldn't believe that she deliberately set us up so that she could have a unanimous vote, so we confronted her about it and she was gleeful that she had basically said that as long as she was at Hogwarts you wouldn't be playing for Gryffindor!"

Harry had laughed a little when he heard the twins disparage Ron and Hermione, but it was short lived humour as he could see that the confrontation with a fellow Gryffindor who they had known for six year could turn out to not be the person that the twins thought they were.

"It then got worse from there as Angelina and Alicia said that if we wanted to continue to date them then we would have to break off all contact with you and back them up next year when they would block you from being able to try out for the team if you even wanted to with Angelina at the helm. We refused and tried to make them see reason but they have convinced themselves that you cheated to get your name into the cup and are letting petty jealousy rule them, so they gave us an ultimatum. It was either stay on the team and have girlfriends but we would not be able to speak or act friendly with you at all, or continue as we have been but they would immediately break up with us and we would be off the team as well."

Harry was horrified by how far the petty jealousy of three teenage girls seemed to go and he was worried that the twins would have chosen to keep their places on the team as he knew that they both loved to play Quidditch. Seeing the distressed look on Harry's face, Fred (at least Harry thought so) picked up where his twin left off.

"So we did the only thing we could. We broke up with them immediately and vowed to never fly for Gryffindor so long as one of them was captain."

"But...but you guys love Quidditch, why would you throw all that away for me?" Harry asked, bewildered.

The twins smiled at him before continuing; "Ron many have forgotten this in his little temper tantrum but you are as good as family and if it weren't for you then Ginny would be dead. We don't turn our backs on family in need, especially when said family hasn't done anything wrong. And in any case wouldn't it be the ultimate prank for Angelina to come to her senses next year and realise that she will have effectively ostracised not only the best seeker in the school but the best beater duo in the school. I can imagine that she will be quite the little miss unpopular if Gryffindor can't win matches as three of the best candidates for the open positions refuse to be captain by her." The twins were openly smirking by the end as well as Harry who could see that it would be revenge served ice cold which normally Harry would try and avoid but all he would have to do is bring up what others had said and done so it could then be blown up in their faces.

"We spoke to Ginny earlier and she said that if we were to boycott the team then she would as well in a show of unity, and you've seen how good Ginny is playing chaser or seeker."

"Thanks guys, you have no idea how good it is to know that not everyone believes me to be a lying, cheating scumbag."

Both the twins clapped Harry on the shoulder before they broke out into matching evil grins that made Harry's self preservation instincts go haywire.

"Anyway now that the boring stuff is out of the way we need to talk about the serious stuff. We must know if Daphne prefers whips or chains when she has to punish you? Do you struggle or submit to her easily? Does she let you 'punish' her back?"

At the twins words Harry blushed bright red at what they were insinuating as he stammered trying to answer as the twins couldn't hold their laughter back any longer and collapsed back onto the sofas, lost in their mirth.


End file.
